Users, such as automobile drivers on roads, often desire to view traffic information associated with the roads on which they wish to travel. Traffic information can inform the users when congestion, or traffic jams, occur on these roads.
One technique for informing users about traffic involves placing cameras along a road, and allowing users to view live feeds, captured by these cameras. However, such an approach may be costly, as cameras must be placed in each location that is to be monitored. Additionally, such an approach does not allow users to view traffic at locations that do not have a camera present. Furthermore, the pictures and/or videos captured by these cameras may not be of very high quality.
Another technique for informing users about traffic involves providing a software application that users may run on mobile devices (e.g., cellular phones). The application, running on a particular mobile device, may continuously monitor a geographic location of the particular mobile device, and periodically provide information regarding the geographic location of the particular mobile device to a server. The server may receive information regarding the geographic locations of multiple mobile devices, and may determine that congestion occurs when many mobile devices are concentrated on a particular stretch of road. However, such an approach may consume excessive network bandwidth (e.g., bandwidth of a network over which the mobile devices communicate with the server). Additionally, such an approach may consume excessive battery power at the mobile devices.